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Two Lactones Non-toxic to Humans Are Effective Repellents for the German Cockroach

  • Medical and Veterinary Entomology
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Abstract

Lactones are cyclic esters of hydroxy carboxylic acids, present in several fruits and animals consumed by humans. There is evidence that some lactones modify insect behavior. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the repellent effect of four lactones (γ- and δ-nonalactone, and γ- and δ-dodecalactone) in first instar nymphs of the German cockroach, Blattella germanica (Linnaeus). To assess repellency, a nymph was placed on a circle of filter paper, half of which had been treated with lactone dissolved in acetone and the other half with acetone alone. The behavior of the nymph was recorded and the time the nymph spent in each half of the paper was quantified using Ethovision XT 10.1 software. Values of Distribution Coefficient (DC) were calculated: DC = (Tt − TA) / Tt, where Tt is the experimental time and TA is the time the nymph spent in the area treated with the repellent agent. DC can vary between 0 and 1. Values significantly higher than 0.5 indicate repellency. N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) was used as a positive control. DEET, δ- and γ-nonalactone caused repellency as from 77.9 µg/cm2, whereas γ- and δ-dodecalactone had a repellent effect starting at 779.0 µg/cm2. The values of DC for these concentrations were 0.89 (DEET), 0.86 (γ-nonalactone), 0.87 (δ-nonalactone), 0.83 (γ-dodecalactone), and 0.72 (δ-dodecalactone). To our knowledge, this is the first report of repellency produced by lactones in the German cockroach. This work allowed to identify two lactones that have a repellent effect similar to DEET.

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Acknowledgements

R.A.A. and A.L. are members of the Carrera del Investigador Científico del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas from Argentina (CONICET). A.S is a fellowship holder of the CONICET. We thank Catriona Kirkwood for English correction, and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions, which helped us to improve our article.

Funding

This work was supported by the CONICET (PIP CONICET 11220200101298CO to R.A.A.) and by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción de la Ciencia y la Tecnología from Argentina (PICT 2017–1512 to R.A.A).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigaciones de Plagas e Insecticidas (UNIDEF-CITEDEF-CONICET-CIPEIN), Villa Martelli, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Analía Sforzín & Raúl A. Alzogaray

  2. Instituto de Ecología y Desarrollo Sustentable (INEDES), Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Alejandro Lucia

  3. Escuela de Hábitat y Sostenibilidad (EHyS), Univ Nacional de San Martín, San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Raúl A. Alzogaray

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  1. Analía Sforzín
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AS: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, visualization, writing—original draft. AL: conceptualization, writing—review and editing. RAA: conceptualization, funding acquisition, methodology, project administration, resources, supervision, validation, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Analía Sforzín.

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Sforzín, A., Lucia, A. & Alzogaray, R.A. Two Lactones Non-toxic to Humans Are Effective Repellents for the German Cockroach. Neotrop Entomol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-024-01139-4

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